A Dolf in Wolf's Clothing

I enjoyed presenting my recent post of LPs by Dutch light music maestro Dolf van der Linden, so I've prepared another one - with a difference.

The change is that van der Linden is not credited with the two albums in this post. Instead, they are attributed to a made-up bandleader named "Daniel De Carlo." It's not clear why the Decca company decided to issue these fine records under a pseudonym. Perhaps van der Linden had a contract with another company?

"Daniel De Carlo" smudges one of his records

Whatever the reason for the obfuscation, Decca then decided it would market its De Carlo LPs with a whole series of hideous covers, as if to repel the record buying public. One wonders what the motivation would be to encase a perfectly delightful album of melodies with a photo of a man in a mangy wolf's head, his vulpine leer proffering One Night of Love. I can't imagine a less inviting promise.

It's not as though this was a one-time occurrence, either. The Decca art director ordered three such beastly covers (to my knowledge). In one, a ratty fox wearing earphones advertises George "The Fox" Williams' LP The "Fox" in Hi-Fi. There also is one featuring a tattered tiger costume, also inflicted on van der Linden (you can see it advertised on the back of both of these De Carlo albums).

For the second De Carlo LP in this post, This Is Romance, Decca didn't concoct anything so repulsive, just one of its usual derpy concepts, this one involving a boy, a girl, and a papier-mâché tree.

The music in these albums, in contrast, is elegant and well recorded. For One Night of Love, van der Linden mixes works by European composers with better-known pieces like "Lullaby of Birdland" and "I Hadn't Anyone Till You" (which songs, come to think of it, are also by Europeans). The second record is similar, with the unfamiliar alongside such items as "Once in a While" and even the "Tennessee Waltz." The conductor also includes one of his own compositions, "Angele" in the This Is Romance set.

Dolf van der Linden and the Metropole Orchestra

Strangely, Decca provides a straightforward biographical sketch of van der Linden on both LPs, attributing his life events to De Carlo. Even more strangely, Decca issued other van der Linden records under another pseudonym - "Van Lynn." This was at least closer to the conductor's real name.

There is more about van der Linden in my first post of his LPs.